Prayers at fire-bombed mosques as India's riot toll grows

February 28, 2020

NEW DELHI (AP) — Muslims in a northeastern neighborhood of India's capital returned for weekly prayers at fire-bombed mosques on Friday, two days after a 72-hour clash between Hindus and Muslims that left at least 40 dead and hundreds injured.

Five days after they started, it was still unclear exactly what sparked the riots — the worst communal violence in New Delhi in decades — and the death toll at hospitals was continuing to rise. "If they burn our mosques, we will rebuild them again and pray. It’s our religious right and nobody can stop us from practicing our religion,” said Mohammad Sulaiman, who was among about 180 men who prayed on the rooftop of a mosque that was set on fire in the unrest.

Tensions between Hindu hard-liners and Muslims protesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi government's Hindu-first policies had been building for months when the violence exploded Sunday night, on the eve of U.S. President Donald Trump's first state visit to India.

Kapil Mishra, a local leader of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party who lost his Delhi state assembly seat in recent elections, demanded at a rally Sunday that police shut down a Muslim-led protest in the city or else he and his followers would do it themselves.

And it appears they did. Hindus and Muslims attacked each other with guns and swords, metal rods and axes, leaving the streets where the rioting occurred resembling a war zone. There was a heavy police presence in the neighborhood on Friday. On one riot-torn street, Hindus shouted "Jai Shri Ram," or Long Live Ram, the Hindu god, as Muslims attempted to reach a mosque damaged in the riots.

Several Muslim residents told The Associated Press that most Muslim families had locked up their homes and fled the area. The passage of a citizenship law in December that fast-tracks naturalization for some religious minorities from neighboring countries but not Muslims earlier spurred massive protests across India that left 23 dead.

The protest violence is the latest in a long line of periodic communal clashes that date to the British partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, when the country was split into secular, Hindu-majority India and the Islamic state of Pakistan.

The protection of India's religious, cultural and linguistic diversity is enshrined in its constitution. But communal tensions have occasionally flared into deadly riots, beginning with partition itself, when Hindus living in what is now Pakistan migrated to India, and Muslims in modern India to Pakistan.

Clashes claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and people of other religions. This week's death toll marked the worst religiously motivated violence in New Delhi since 1984, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards, triggering a wave of riots that resulted in the deaths of more than 3,000 Sikhs in the capital and more than 8,000 nationwide.

In 1992, tens of thousands of Hindu extremists razed a 16th-century mosque in northern India, claiming that it stood on Ram's birthplace. Nearly 2,000 people were killed across the country in the riots that followed.

The religious polarization that followed saw Modi's right-wing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party emerge as the single largest party in India’s Parliament. In 2002, the western Indian state of Gujarat erupted in violence when a train filled with Hindu pilgrims was attacked by a Muslim mob. A fire erupted — it remains unclear whether it was arson — and 60 Hindus burned to death. In retaliation, more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the state.

Modi was Gujarat’s chief minister at the time. He was accused of tacit support for the rampage against Muslims, but a court ultimately cleared him of wrongdoing. Violent large-scale clashes between Hindus and Muslims last took place in New Delhi in 2014, months after Modi's party came to power, in a largely poor neighborhood close to where this week's rioting occurred. That violence left three dozen people injured.

Ashutosh Varshney, a professor at Brown University who wrote a book about Indian riots, said the worst has been averted — at least for now. “If it had reached the scale of Delhi 1984 or Gujarat 2002, it would have doomed Indian politics for many years to come and brought India closer to the kind of Hindu-Muslim polarization that the current ruling party would ideally want, but is finding it hard to manufacture,” Varshney said.

BJP leaders, who have sought to demonize Muslim protesters as a threat to India, may see some gain from the violence, Varshney said. But it comes at a cost, the international perception that India under Modi has become ungovernable, he said.

Government spokesman Raveesh Kumar denied the Modi government had inflamed religious tensions in India and failed to protect minority Muslims. “These are factually inaccurate and misleading, and appear to be aimed at politicizing the issue,” he said. “Our law enforcement agencies are working on the ground to prevent violence and ensure restoration of confidence and normalcy.”

He added that Modi had “publicly appealed for peace and brotherhood.” “We would urge that irresponsible comments are not made at this sensitive time," he said.

Death toll rises to 24 from Delhi riots during Trump trip

February 26, 2020

NEW DELHI (AP) — At least 24 people were killed and 189 injured in three days of clashes in New Delhi that coincided with U.S. President Donald Trump's first state visit to India, with the death toll expected to rise as hospitals continue to take in the wounded, authorities said Wednesday.

Shops, Muslim shrines and public vehicles were left smoldering from violence between Hindu mobs and Muslims protesting a new citizenship law that fast-tracks naturalization for foreign-born religious minorities of all major faiths in South Asia except Islam.

Twenty-four deaths were reported at two hospitals in New Delhi, officials said. The clashes were the worst communal riots in the Indian capital in decades. The law's passage in December earlier spurred massive protests across India that left 23 dead, many of them killed by police.

The dead in this week's violence included a policeman and an intelligence bureau officer, and the government has banned public assembly in the affected areas. Police spokesman M.S. Randhawa said 106 people were arrested for alleged involvement in the rioting.

Officials reported no new violence Wednesday as large police reinforcements patrolled the areas, where an uneasy calm prevailed. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval toured the northeastern neighborhoods of Delhi where the rioting occurred, seeking to assure fear-stricken residents including a female student who complained that police had not protected them from mobs who vandalized the area and set shops and vehicles on fire.

While clashes wracked parts of the capital, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted a lavish reception for Trump, including a rally in his home state of Gujarat attended by more than 100,000 people and the signing of an agreement to purchase more than $3 billion of American military hardware.

On Wednesday, Modi broke his silence on the violence, tweeting that “peace and harmony are central to (India's) ethos. I appeal to my sisters and brothers of Delhi to maintain peace and brotherhood at all times."

New Delhi's top elected official, Chief Minister Arvind Kerjiwal, called for Modi's home minister, Amit Shah, to send the army to ensure peace. Police characterized the situation as tense but under control. Schools remained closed.

Sonia Gandhi, a leader of the Congress party, India's main opposition group, called for Shah to resign. She accused Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of creating an environment of hatred and its leaders of inciting violence with provocative speeches that sought to paint Muslim protesters against the citizenship law as anti-nationalists funded by Pakistan.

New Delhi's High Court ordered the police to review videos of hate speeches allegedly made by three leaders of Modi's party and decide whether to prosecute them, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

The clashes escalated Tuesday, according to Rouf Khan, a resident of Mustafabad, an area in the capital's northeast. Khan said mobs with iron rods, bricks and bamboo sticks attacked the homes of Muslims while chanting "Jai Shri Ram," or “Victory to Lord Ram,” the popular Hindu god of the religious epic “Ramayana.”

As Air Force One flew Trump and his delegation out of New Delhi late Tuesday, Muslim families huddled in a mosque in the city's northeast, praying that Hindu mobs wouldn't burn it down. “After forcing their way inside the homes, they went on a rampage and started beating people and breaking household items,” Khan said of the mobs, adding that he and his family had to run and take shelter inside a mosque that he said was guarded by thousands of Muslim men.

“I don’t know if our house was burned or not, but when we were running away we heard them asking people to pour kerosene and burn everything down,” Khan said. Some of the dead had bullet wounds, according to Dr. Sunil Kumar, medical director of the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital.

Others came to the hospital with gunshot and stab wounds and head injuries. Among them was Mohammad Sameer, 17, who was being treated for a gunshot wound to his chest Wednesday at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital.

Speaking to The Associated Press after having an operation, Sameer said he was standing on his family's apartment terrace watching Hindu mobs enter Mustafabad when he was shot in the chest. “When Sameer was shot, I took him on my shoulders and ran downstairs," said the boy's father, Mohammad Akram. “But when the mob saw us, they beat me and my injured son. He was bleeding very badly. While they were beating with sticks, they kept on chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans and threatened to barge inside our homes.”

Akram said he managed to get his son into a vehicle, but they were stopped several times by Hindus demanding they pull their pants down to show whether they were circumcised before they managed to escape from the area and reach the emergency room. Muslims are generally circumcised, while Hindus are not.

In Kardampura, a Muslim-majority area where a youth was shot and killed on Monday, hundreds of police personnel in riot gear patrolled the area and asked people to stay indoors, while residents said they were living in fear.

“We are scared and don’t know where to go,” said one resident, Dr. Jeevan Ali Khan. “If the government wanted, they could have stopped these riots.” Close by, black smoke still rose on Wednesday afternoon from a market that sold tires and second-hand car parts in Gokalpuri as fireman tried to douse the smoldering fire.

The violence drew sharp reactions from U.S. lawmakers, with Rep. Rashida Talib, a Democrat from Michigan, tweeting, “This week, Trump visited India but the real story should be the communal violence targeting Muslims in Delhi right now.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the killing of Muslims, saying: “Now 200 million Muslims in India are being targeted. The world community must act now." Trump told reporters Tuesday that he had heard about the violence but had not discussed it with Modi. Instead, Trump gloated about his reception in India.

India has been rocked by violence since Parliament approved the citizenship law in December. Opponents have said the country is moving toward a religious citizenship test, but Trump declined to comment on it.

“I don't want to discuss that. I want to leave that to India and hopefully they're going to make the right decision for the people,” he said. It was the worst religiously motivated violence in New Delhi since 1984, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards, triggering a wave of riots that resulted in the deaths of more than 3,000 Sikhs in the capital and more than 8,000 nationwide.

In 1992, tens of thousands of Hindu extremists razed a 16th-century mosque in northern India, claiming that it stood on the birthplace of the Hindu god Rama. Nearly 2,000 people were killed across the country in the riots that followed.

The religious polarization that followed saw the right-wing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party emerge as the single largest party in India’s Parliament. The Congress party and regional parties courted Muslim votes by portraying themselves as defenders of minority rights.

In 2002, the western Indian state of Gujarat erupted in violence when a train filled with Hindu pilgrims was attacked by a Muslim mob in a small town. A fire erupted — it remains unclear whether it was arson — and 60 Hindus burned to death. In retaliation, more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the state.

Modi was Gujarat’s chief minister at the time. He was accused of tacit support for the rampage against Muslims, but a court ultimately cleared him of wrongdoing. Still, for several years the U.S. included him on a travel ban. Hosting Trump in Gujarat was important symbolically for Modi.

Violent large-scale clashes between Hindus and Muslims last took place in New Delhi in 2014, months after Modi's party came to power, in a largely poor neighborhood close to where this week's rioting occurred.

A Muslim-owned shop was set on fire, Hindus pelted a mosque with stones, and dozens of angry Muslim men attacked Hindu homes. About three dozen people were injured.

Associated Press journalists Ashok Sharma and Shonal Ganguly in New Delhi, and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

India pours on the pageantry with colorful welcome for Trump

February 24, 2020

AHMEDABAD, INDIA (AP) — India poured on the pageantry with a joyful, colorful welcome for President Donald Trump on Monday that kicked off a whirlwind 36-hour visit meant to reaffirm U.S.-India ties while providing enviable overseas imagery for a president in a re-election year.

More than 100,000 people packed into the world's largest cricket stadium, giving Trump the biggest rally crowd of his political career, for the pinnacle of the day's trio of presidential photo-ops. Trump visited a former home of independence leader Mohandas Gandhi and he also planned to tour the famed Taj Mahal.

Nearly everyone in the newly constructed stadium in Ahmedabad in western India sported a white cap with the name of the event, “Namaste, Trump” or “Welcome, Trump,” and roared for the introductions of both Trump and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Trump opened his speech by declaring that he traveled 8,000 miles to deliver the message that “America loves India, America respects India and America will always be faithful and loyal friends to the Indian people.”

The boisterous scene featured soldiers on camels, a mix of songs from Bollywood hits and Trump's campaign rally playlist, including an Elton John hit that seemed to puzzle most of the crowd. Trump basked in the raucous reception that has eluded him on many foreign trips, some of which have featured massive protests and icy handshakes from world leaders. In India, he instead received a warm embrace — literally — from the ideologically aligned and hugger Modi.

The sun-baked city of Ahmedabad bustled as Trump arrived, as the streets teemed with people eager to catch a glimpse of the American president. Newly cleaned roads and planted flowers dotted the roads amid hundreds of billboards featuring the president and first lady Melania Trump. Thousands lined his motorcade route, shy of the up to 10 million that Trump speculated would be on hand.

His first stop was Gandhi's home, where Trump donned a prayer shawl and took off his shoes to create the incongruous image of a grandiose president quietly walking through the humble ashram. He inspected the spinning wheel used by the famed pacifist and looked at a statue of monkeys representing Gandhi's mantra of "See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil" before departing for a far more boisterous setting: the mega-rally at the world's largest cricket stadium.

Trump’s motorcade traveled amid cheers from a battery of carefully picked and vetted Modi loyalists and workers from his Bharatiya Janata Party who will stand for hours alongside the neatly manicured 22-kilometer (14-mile) stretch of road to accord the president a grand welcome on his way to the newly constructed stadium. Tens of thousands of police officers were on hand to keep security tight and a new wall has come up in front of a slum, apparently to hide it from presidential passers-by.

On the way to the stadium, Trump's motorcade crossed over a river where a barge was emblazoned with “TRUMP" and onlookers chanted “Modi!” The stadium was packed with revelers, many of whom sported Trump and Modi masks, as they sat in 80-degree temperatures. The “Namaste Trump” rally was, in a way, the back half of home-and-home events for Modi and Trump, who attended a “Howdy Modi” rally in Houston last year that drew 50,000 people.

Trump lavished praise on both Modi and the democracy he leads, touting an effort to lift residents out of extreme poverty, saying “India gives hope to all of humanity.” “Your nation is doing so well, we are very very proud of India," he said. “The story of the Indian nation is a tale of astounding progress."

Trump’s foreign visits have typically been light on sightseeing, but this time, the president and first lady are to visit the Taj Mahal. Stories in local media warn of the monkeys that inhabit the landmark pestering tourists for food and, on occasion, menacing both visitors and slingshot-carrying security guards.

Images of American presidents being feted on the world stage stand in contrast to those of their rivals in the opposing party slogging through diners in early-voting states and clashing in debate. This trip, in particular, reflects a Trump campaign strategy to showcase him in his presidential role during short, carefully managed trips that provide counter-programming to the Democrats’ primary contest and produce the kinds of visuals his campaign can use in future ads. His aides also believe the visit could help the president woo tens of thousands of Indian-American voters before the November election.

The visit also comes at a crucial moment for Modi, a fellow populist, who has provided over a steep economic downturn and unfulfilled campaign promises about job creation. When Trump touches down in Delhi later on Monday, he will find a bustling, noisy, colorful capital that also is dotted with half-finished construction projects stalled due to disappearing funding.

The president on Tuesday will conclude his whirlwind visit to India with a day in the capital, complete with a gala dinner meetings with Modi over stalled trade talks between the two nations. The two nations are closely allied, in part to act as a bulwark against the rising influence of nearby China, but trade tensions between the two countries have escalated since the Trump administration imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium from India. India responded with higher penalties on agricultural goods and restrictions on U.S. medical devices. The U.S. retaliated by removing India from a decades-old preferential trade program.

Perhaps alluding to tough negotiations over trade, Trump lightheartedly told the rally crowd: “Everybody loves him, but I will tell you this. He’s very tough.” Eyes will also be on whether Trump weighs on in the protests enveloping India over its Citizenship Amendment Act. It provides a fast track to naturalization for some migrants who entered the country illegally while fleeing religious persecution, but excludes Muslims, raising fears that the country is moving toward a religious citizenship test. Passage has prompted large-scale protests and a violent crackdown.

Typically, Trump has not publicly rebuked world leaders for human rights abuses during his overseas trips. But one senior administration official said the U.S. is concerned about the situation and that Trump will tell Modi the world is looking to India to continue to uphold its democratic traditions and respect religious minorities.

Sheikh Saaliq contributed reporting. Lemire reported from Delhi.

UK departs from Europe in virus response, draws criticism

March 13, 2020

LONDON (AP) — The United Kingdom stood increasingly apart Friday as countries across Europe and around the world shut schools and universities, scrapped sports tournaments and shuttered bars and restaurants in response to the new coronavirus.

The British government has not restricted the everyday activities of U.K. residents by banning large public gatherings or suspending transit networks. More than 60,000 horse-racing fans packed a course in England on Friday for the final day of the Cheltenham Festival, one of the few sporting events in Europe still taking place.

Pupils in Northern Ireland attended classes as usual at St. Columban’s primary school in the village of Belcoo. Yet a little more than 2 miles (3.2 km) away, across the border in the Irish Republic, the local St. Patrick's school was closed. So was every other school and all the colleges, daycare centers and cultural institutions in Ireland.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has described the worldwide pandemic as “the worst public health crisis for a generation.” He warned Thursday that “many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time.”

Yet U.K. authorities have not introduced the strict “social distancing” measures adopted by neighboring nations. Britons are being urged to wash hands frequently and asked to stay home for a week if they have a persistent cough or a fever.

As of Friday, the U.K. had 798 confirmed cases of the new virus, an increase of more than 200 from a day earlier. Ten people have died. Britain’s strategy is based on the presumption that most people in the country will eventually get the virus, and severe measures to contain it are unlikely to work.

Patrick Vallance, the British government’s chief scientific adviser, said the U.K. was “about four weeks or so behind Italy,” where more than 15,000 infections and more than 1,000 deaths were recorded in only three weeks.

As more people become infected in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, growing criticism of the government’s approach is coming from Johnson’s political opponents, from some scientists, and from an increasingly worried population.

“I think we are in a national emergency,” said former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who like Johnson is a Conservative politician. "I think it is surprising and concerning that we're not doing any (social distancing) at all when we have just four weeks before we get to the stage that Italy is at,” Hunt told the BBC. “You would have thought that every single thing we do in that four weeks would be designed to slow the spread of people catching the virus."

British officials insist they are trying to slow the spread of COVID-19 disease, thus lessening chances the health system will be overwhelmed by a sudden spike. But in contrast to many other countries, Britain has calculated that enforcing social distancing too soon would be counterproductive because people will tire of the restrictions and start to lapse just when the measures are needed most.

In most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms such as a fever or cough. But for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

If most people become infected and then recover, it builds up “herd immunity” in the population, lessening the impact of future outbreaks. Worldwide, 135,000 people have been infected and nearly 5,000 have died, but half of those who had the virus have already recovered.

“Our aim is to try and reduce the peak, broaden the peak, not suppress it completely,” Vallance said Friday. “Also, because the vast majority of people get a mild illness, to build up some kind of herd immunity so more people are immune to this disease and we reduce the transmission, at the same time we protect those who are most vulnerable to it.”

To some anxious Britons that sounds callous, as if the government intends to let some individuals get sick and die in order to strengthen society. The front pages of most British newspapers carried stark summaries Friday of Johnson’s warning the day before: “Many loved ones will die,” was the Daily Mail's headline.

Scientists say a pandemic like the current one brings with it difficult choices and tough judgment calls. Thomas House, a reader in mathematical statistics at the University of Manchester, said that “whether we aim for it or not, herd immunity will happen at some point in the future” once the new virus has run its course.

“The aim of policy should be for this to happen with the minimum human cost possible,” he said. Whatever the government advises, the virus has already had a major impact in Britain. Soccer’s Premier League canceled matches until April 3. Some universities are moving classes online. Commuters can get rush-hour seats on the London Underground as more people work from home. Hotels, shops and restaurants report business dropping off as tourists cancel their trips.

Some critics say the government’s approach relies too much on the untested theories of behavioral scientists, and argue that containment measures can still be effective. Rory Stewart, a former Conservative government minister, urged Britain to adopt “tough and extreme measures” such as lockdowns and travel bans that have worked in China and South Korea to bring down the number of new infections.

“The government questions whether the British public is up for the kind of measures which have been taken in other countries,” he told Sky News. “I disagree. I think the British public will do what publics in other countries have done and can do.”

On the heels of Italy, Spain to go drastic in battling virus

March 13, 2020

MADRID (AP) — With Italy already submerged in a national quarantine, Spain took a major step Friday toward a similar lock-down as it struggles to ride the wave of the coronavirus pandemic spawning illness and fear around the globe.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that his government will declare a two-week state of emergency on Saturday, giving it extraordinary powers including the mobilization of the country's armed forces, to confront the COVID-19 outbreak.

“It's an emergency that affects the life and health of all. The government is going to protect all citizens," Sánchez said, adding that he is preparing a battery of measures to brace the nation for an even bigger jump in infections indicated by the rapidly increasing contagion curve.

The positive cases could be over 10,000 by next week, the prime minister warned in his televised address, from more than 4,200 confirmed by midday on Friday. A total of 120 people have died, and 189 have been declared as recovered.

A state of emergency allows the central government to limit free movement, legally confiscate goods and take over control of industries and private facilities, including private hospitals. It's only the second time that the government has evoked it since the return of democracy in the late 1970s. The other was declared during a 2010 strike by air traffic controllers.

Over 60,000 people awoke Friday in four towns near Barcelona confined to their homes and with police blocking roads, in the country's first mandatory lock-down. The southeastern region of Murcia has since announced it was locking down coastal areas popular with tourists.

More than 62 countries, including neighboring Morocco, have restricted arrivals from Spain, which has so far only stopped flights with Italy. On Friday, the British government advised against all but essential travel to Spain's La Rioja, parts of the Basque Country and the Madrid region, which has seen nearly 2,000 positive cases of the new virus.

With hospitals rapidly filling up, the Spanish capital is a source of particular concern. Unlike China, which cracked down quickly to restrict movement by people, Italy, Spain and other European countries have taken a more measured approach to strike a balance between the public health crisis and individual freedoms.

Italian authorities have acknowledged that escalating restrictions have been unable to contain the virus. Italy this week has gone into complete quarantine with authorities threatening to impose heavy fines and even jail time for those who break it.

The Madrid regional vice president said Friday that the capital is in dire need of medical supplies, despite announcing an unprecedented plan to reshuffle the region’s health system that included pooling intensive care units from both public and private hospitals and even considering creating additional hospital rooms in hotels. At least two hotel chains have offered their premises.

“We can’t let more days go. We already know what’s going to happen tomorrow and the day after tomorrow because we have the examples of China or Italy,” Ignacio Aguado told Spanish public broadcaster, TVE. “This is a silent hurricane.”

The streets of downtown Madrid, normally bustling with commuters on an average Friday morning, were almost empty as the message from authorities to stay home took hold. The city’s mayor issued a decree to ban the outdoor seating for café terraces and was considering the closure of bars in a city that loves its tapas and ‘cañas’ (small-sized beers). Authorities had already closed museums and sports centers, sent home nearly 10 million students and has asked people to work remotely, while limiting crowds at public events in high-risk areas.

Yet officials and citizens in coastal areas have complained about the influx of people from Madrid in recent days, as some have taken advantage of the closing of schools in the capital or policies to "work from home" to take trips.

“Stay at home, these are no holidays!" Fernando López Miras, the regional president of the southeast Murcia region, said after he announced that his government was prohibiting access to coastal areas popular for beachgoers Friday.

"It's shameful to see how the tourist information offices in Murcia were full of people from other regions this morning,” he said. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover from the new virus.

In Igualada, a town of nearly 40,000 some 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of Barcelona that was put under mandatory confinement on Thursday night, the number of cases has almost tripled in 24 hours. Miguel Caballero, who runs a family restaurant in the town, said the lock-down was adding to the pain of having to juggle work and taking care of two children who have no school. Leaving them with grandparents was out of question because the elderly are considered a high-risk group.

“The situation is serious but we are aware that this is going to help to halt the contagion here and to stop it from spreading,” Caballero said. The biggest concern is whether Spain’s largely public health system is able to sustain the sharp increase in cases, especially after years of austerity measures exhausted resources in hospitals and health centers. The central government on Thursday allocated an additional package of 3.8 billion euros ($4.2 billion) for reinforcing personnel and supplies for hospitals, as well as a 14-billion-euro ($15.6 billion) stimulus package for the economy.

Public health expert Rafael Bengoa said that private clinics may not be too much help because they rarely have intensive care beds, which is what is most desperately needed. "Look, this is not only going to be controlled by authorities, it is going to be controlled by social participation," the doctor said, adding that Spain has the advantage of Italy's experience and "more time" to prepare.

"There will be tensions in Spanish hospitals in the next two, three weeks, but we have had time to mitigate the demand coming in," Bengoa said. Sánchez finished his televised address on Friday with one final appeal to the nation of 46 million.

“The victory depends on each one of us,” Sánchez said. “To be hero also means to wash one's hands and stay at home."

Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. AP reporters Philippa Law and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

MLB delays opening day by at least 2 weeks because of virus

March 12, 2020

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball delayed the start of its season by at least two weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak and suspended the rest of its spring training game schedule. Opening day had been scheduled for March 26. The decision announced by Commissioner Rob Manfred on Thursday left open whether each team would still play a 162-game schedule.

“It’s unfortunate but I think it’s the proper measure we need to take now given the situation the country’s in and the world’s in," New York Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton said. "It’s important to know that some things are bigger than baseball, bigger than sports at the moment. Once we’re able to hopefully get a hold on some things and get some questions answered we can figure out when things can continue.”

The announcement came while some spring training games in Florida were still in progress. MLB followed the NBA, NHL, MLS and college basketball tournaments in altering its schedule because of the pandemic. The minor league baseball season, which was to start April 9, also was being delayed.

“We’re ultimately all people, we all love the game of baseball but this is a far bigger issue for all of us right now, and we’re trying to work our way through it together," Seattle Mariners owner John Stanton said at the team's camp in Peoria, Arizona.

“I believe that this is going to be something that will have a lot more twists and turns to it. I don’t have a high degree of confidence that we will start on April 9,” he said. MLB had continued to play into Thursday, two weeks before openers at Dodger Stadium, Camden Yards and other parks. But baseball changed course after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a morning news conference he had strongly recommended to local authorities and organizers that they limit all mass gatherings.

“MLB and the clubs have been preparing a variety of contingency plans regarding the 2020 regular season schedule,” the baseball commissioner's office said in a statement. “MLB will announce the effects on the schedule at an appropriate time and will remain flexible as events warrant, with the hope of resuming normal operations as soon as possible.”

MLB had not had a mass postponement of openers since 1995, when the season was shortened from 162 games to 144 following a 7 1/2-month players' strike that also wiped out the 1994 World Series. Opening day was pushed back from April 2 to April 26. Player salaries were reduced by 11.1% in 1995 because the games were lost due to a strike.

Players with big league contracts likely will be allowed to leave spring training and go home if they want to, but no decision on that was made public. After a 32-day spring training lockout in 1990 caused opening day to be delayed a week until April 9, the season was extended by three days to allow each team a full 162-game schedule.

Baseball's first strike lasted from April 1-13 in 1972, and the season started April 15. Teams played 153-156 games. This year marked the earliest opening day other than for international games. As it stood, Game 7 of the World Series would've been Oct. 28.

The Texas Rangers had been looking forward to the opening of their new retractable-roof ballpark, Globe Life Field, first with an exhibition game against St. Louis on March 23. The formal opener had been scheduled for March 31 against the Los Angeles Angels.

If regular-season games are lost this year, MLB could attempt to reduce salaries by citing paragraph 11 of the Uniform Player's Contract, which covers national emergencies. The announcement Thursday said the decision was made “due to the national emergency created by the coronavirus pandemic."

“This contract is subject to federal or state legislation, regulations, executive or other official orders or other governmental action, now or hereafter in effect respecting military, naval, air or other governmental service, which may directly or indirectly affect the player, club or the league,” every Uniform Player's Contract states.

The provision also states the agreement is “subject also to the right of the commissioner to suspend the operation of this contract during any national emergency during which Major League Baseball is not played.”

Spring training games were suspended as of 4 p.m. EDT Thursday. Qualifying games for the 2021 World Baseball Classic also were called off.

AP freelance writers Mark Didtler and Jose M. Romero contributed to this report.

Turkey says schools, universities to shut over coronavirus

March 12, 2020

Turkish schools will be closed for one week and universities for three weeks from March 16, and all sports events will be played without spectators until the end of April in response to the coronavirus outbreak, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said, Reuters reports.

The moves came after Turkey confirmed its first coronavirus infection on Wednesday, becoming the last major economy to report an outbreak after taking what the World Health Organization (WHO) described as vigilant measures.

At a news conference following a meeting of ministers at the presidential palace, Kalin also said that President Tayyip Erdogan’s foreign visits and programs will be postponed for some time due to the spread of the virus.

Kalin said primary, middle and secondary schools would initially be closed for one week and after that students will receive remote online teaching from March 23.

Until Wednesday’s announcement, Turkey had officially managed to avoid an outbreak, though all its neighbours except war-ravaged Syria had reported cases. Iran has an especially high number of cases and deaths.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200312-turkey-says-schools-universities-to-shut-over-coronavirus/.

World walls off as leaders warn viral pandemic will worsen

March 12, 2020

BANGKOK (AP) — People around the world became increasingly closed off from one another Thursday as sweeping travel bans accelerated, walling regions apart as a viral pandemic unfolds and financial markets plunge.

It was an outbreak moving, at once, both glacially and explosively, with a virus first detected three months ago in China creeping across borders and producing eruptive outbreaks that have crippled areas.

Even for a crisis that has brought no shortage of headlines, dizzying developments were flashing across screens: An official designation of “pandemic” from the World Health Organization, a dramatic halt to much travel between the United States and 26 European countries, and infections among beloved Hollywood stars, sports luminaries and political leaders. All of it came against a backdrop of plunging world economies that left not only Wall Street investors but people from all walks of life hurting.

“We will see more cases and things will get worse than they are right now,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. President Donald Trump, who had downplayed the virus for days, suddenly struck a different tone, delivering a somber Oval Office address announcing strict rules on travel from much of Europe to begin this weekend. The State Department followed with an extraordinary warning to Americans to “reconsider travel abroad” too. Local leaders warned things would only get worse.

“This will be a very difficult time,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin a top public health official for the Seattle area, which has one of the biggest U.S. outbreaks. “It’s similar to what you might think of as an infectious disease equivalent of a major earthquake that’s going to shake us for weeks and weeks.”

Across the U.S., where cases now number more than 1,300, a sense of urgency was pervasive. Nursing homes turned away visitors, schools emptied of students and workplace cubicles went vacant. A rite of spring, college basketball's March Madness, was set to proceed in empty arenas, while professional basketball won't play at all. Joyous, booze-filled, green-splashed celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day were called off. TV shows taped without audiences, rush-hour crowds in New York subway cars disappeared, and families hunkered down wondering what would come next.

“If we avoid each other and listen to the scientists, maybe in a few weeks it will be better,” said Koloud ‘Kay’ Tarapolsi of Redmond, Washington, who has two children whose schools were being closed beginning Thursday.

As the pandemic grips Europe and the U.S., it continues to ebb in China, where the first cases of COVID-19 emerged in December. It reported a record low of just 15 new cases Thursday and was cautiously monitoring new arrivals who were returning with the virus from elsewhere.

More than three-fourths of China's patients have recovered. Most people have only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, though symptoms can be severe, including pneumonia, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems. Recovery for mild cases takes about two weeks, while more severe illness may take three to six weeks, WHO says.

More than 126,000 people in more than 110 countries have been infected. But WHO emphasized the vast majority are in just four countries: China and South Korea — where new cases are declining — and Iran and Italy, where they are not.

“We have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action,” said WHO’s leader, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear.” High-profile announcements of infections made the alarms even louder. Double Oscar winner Tom Hanks said he and his wife Rita Wilson tested positive. Australian officials say the couple are in a Queensland hospital and their close contacts would have to self-quarantine.

In Italy, soccer club Juventus said defender Daniele Rugani tested positive. In Iran, the senior vice president and two other Cabinet ministers were reported to have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Italy, already under unprecedented restrictions, tightened rules even more. Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte announcing the closure of pubs, restaurants, hair salons, cafeterias and other businesses that can't ensure a meter (yard) of space between workers and customers.

"In this moment, all the world is looking at us," Conte said, as the rules brought an eerie hush to places around Italy. Asian shares plunged Thursday, following a drop of 1,464 points of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, putting the index 20% below its record set last month and into fearsome territory Wall Street calls a “bear market.”

"There’s a real feeling that we don’t know where this ends," said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network.

Keaten reported from Geneva. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Maria Cheng in London; John Leicester in Paris; Colleen Barry in Soave, Italy; Nicole Winfield and Frances D'Emilio in Rome; Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington; Chris Grygiel and Lisa Baumann in Seattle; and Adam Geller, David B. Caruso and Theo Wayt in New York.

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Italy's lockdown reshapes family life in time of coronavirus

March 11, 2020

SOAVE, Italy (AP) — Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte's decision to lock down the entire country brought some welcome clarity to my family life after weeks of growing uncertainty about how to behave in a time of coronavirus.

I live that stereotype of the multi-generational Italian family, next door to in-laws, both over 80 and suffering from a collection of non-debilitating ailments common for their age. I also live with two teenagers, one of whom in particular has chafed against any suggestion that his social life should be curtailed just when the virus has freed him from that age-old adolescent burden: school.

So as I continued to commute to my job as an Associated Press correspondent based in Milan, the capital of Lombardy, from a small town in neighboring Veneto, the virus seemed both near and far. Near, because the two regions were quickly identified as hot spots with growing numbers of infections and two so-called red zones — but far, because no one we knew was sick, and many of the restrictions were still theoretical. They boiled down to frequent hand-washing.

Virus fear escalated in mid-February as I covered Milan Fashion Week, shoulder-to-shoulder with fashion types from all over the globe, and where the closing show by Giorgio Armani was streamed without an audience as a precaution. But the closest cluster — not yet a red zone — was still an hour away.

As the first restrictions took effect in Veneto and Lombardy — closing schools, museums, cinemas and bars after 6 p.m. — we scoffed at the reactive panic shopping. What were people doing with all that toilet paper? We had flour and pasta aplenty at home. And who needs a shopping cart full of bottled water? The taps weren’t being turned off.

The first day of the new measures was supposed to be the start of a three-day family break for Carnival in Nice, on the coast in neighboring France. But our sociable son woke up with a fever and stomach flu symptoms, and we decided it was better not to chance crossing the border as Italy became a focal point in coronavirus coverage.

Normally we would have gone, stomach flu or not, and instructed the teen to sleep in the car, reasoning that the sea air would do him good. The painful decision to cancel seemed particularly wise after hearing reports of Italian cars being stopped in France for temperature checks. Imagine being found out transporting a feverish 16-year-old: the personal horror, the probable headlines.

Back at work, I wrote about social distancing, about how Italians’ habit of kissing could be part of the problem, before the 1-meter (yard) distancing rule started to gain currency. At home, we began a weeks-long struggle to impress upon invincible youth how vulnerable the elderly are to the virus.

I compensated for our dashed holiday by taking my daughter spring clothes shopping in teen-focused stores where we no longer had to queue for dressing rooms. We ate out in empty restaurants. We had facials. We had to order ice cream at a table, not at the counter. It was the same when we wanted a quick refreshment after 6 p.m. — sit at a table, don't just stand at the bar.

Cities were empty, parking places too easy to find, but we didn’t feel particularly discouraged to be out. In fact, a hashtag began to circulate: #milanononsiferma, or #milandoesntstop. By being out -- as long as we washed our hands frequently -- we were doing our civic duty.

Then virus cases skyrocketed, with Italy registering the most infections outside of China. My in-laws stopped going to the grocery store, instead ordering online. And they stopped kissing their grandchildren every morning and evening, as has been their habit.

Finally, my children got remote homework assignments, and teachers started organizing video classes — even if the app sometimes failed. The notion of a holiday was over. Then this past weekend, we saw the red zone expand from two distant dots on the map — east and west — to provinces just 30 minutes each direction. A Sunday family dinner with my kids’ four cousins -- who are also going stir-crazy with no school — was canceled by the new travel ban out of Lombardy.

Also scratched were my plans to hop over on a free day and see Venice in its newfound quiet after a hotel owner with zero rooms booked because of the virus described the glassy surface of the Grand Canal absent boats transporting Venetians and their wares.

Finally, on Monday evening, the red ink of the restricted travel zone soaked through the entire map of Italy, which had become one big hot spot. The same day, the first confirmed case was announced on Facebook by the mayor of our town. Suddenly, the virus was just near. And Conte declared the new Italian motto: ‘’I stay at home.''

When I told my son, standing at his Playstation, about the national lockdown until April 3, he looked dejected. ‘’How many days is that? What am I going to do for a month?’’ But for the first time in three weeks, he accepted he couldn’t go out that night.

WHO declares virus crisis a pandemic, urges world to fight

March 11, 2020

GENEVA (AP) — Expressing alarm both about mounting infections and inadequate government responses, the World Health Organization declared Wednesday that the global coronavirus crisis is now a pandemic but added that it's not too late for countries to act.

By reversing course and using the charged word “pandemic” that it had previously shied away from, the U.N. health agency sought to shock lethargic countries into pulling out all the stops. “We have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action. We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO chief.

"All countries can still change the course of this pandemic. If countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilize their people in the response," he said. “We are deeply concerned by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction.”

The WHO said Iran and Italy are the new front lines of the battle against the virus that started in China. “They’re suffering but I guarantee you other countries will be in that situation soon," said Dr. Mike Ryan, the WHO's emergencies chief.

He added that the agency thought long and hard about labeling the crisis a pandemic — meaning a new virus causing sustained outbreaks in multiple regions of the world. The risk of employing the term, Ryan said, is “if people use it as an excuse to give up.”

But the likely benefits are “potentially of galvanizing the world to fight.” Underscoring the mounting challenge: Italy’s cases soared again, to 12,462 infections and 827 deaths — both numbers second only to China.

Italy weighed imposing even tighter restrictions on daily life and announced billions in financial relief Wednesday to cushion economic shocks from the coronavirus, its latest efforts to adjust to the fast-evolving crisis that silenced the usually bustling heart of the Catholic faith, St. Peter’s Square.

In Iran, by far the hardest-hit country in the Middle East, the senior vice president and two other Cabinet ministers were reported to have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Iran reported another jump in deaths, by 62 to 354 — behind only China and Italy.

In Italy, Premier Giuseppe Conte said he would consider requests from Lombardy, Italy's hardest-hit region, to toughen the already extraordinary anti-virus lockdown that was extended nationwide Tuesday. Lombardy wants to shut down nonessential businesses and reduce public transportation.

These measures would be on top of travel and social restrictions that imposed an eerie hush on cities and towns across the country. Police enforced rules that customers stay 1 meter (3 feet) apart and ensured that businesses closed by 6 p.m.

Milan shopkeeper Claudia Sabbatini said she favored the stricter measures. Rather than risk customers possibly infecting each other in her children's clothing store, she closed it. "I cannot have people standing at a distance. Children must try on the clothes. We have to know if they will fit,’’ she said.

But Conte said fighting the outbreak must not come at the expense of civil liberties. His caution suggested that Italy is unlikely to adopt the draconian quarantine measures that helped China push down new infections from thousands per day to a trickle now and allowed its manufacturers to restart production lines.

China's new worry is that the coronavirus could re-enter from abroad. Beijing’s city government announced that all overseas visitors will be quarantined for 14 days. Of 24 new cases that China reported Wednesday, five arrived from Italy and one from the United States. China has had over 81,000 virus infections and over 3,000 deaths.

For most, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for a few, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illnesses, including pneumonia. More than 121,000 people have been infected worldwide and over 4,300 have died.

But the vast majority of people recover. According to the WHO, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover. In the Mideast, the vast majority of the nearly 10,000 cases are in Iran or involve people who traveled there. Iran announced another increase in cases Wednesday to 9,000. Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency said they include Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri. Fars said Iran's ministers for cultural heritage, handcrafts and tourism, and for industry, mines and business were also infected.

Cases in Qatar jumped from 24 to 262. Kuwait announced a two-week shutdown of the country. For the global economy, virus repercussions were profound, with increasing concerns of wealth- and job-wrecking recessions. U.S. stocks in afternoon trading wiped more than all the gains from a huge rally a day earlier as Wall Street continues to reel from worries about the coronavirus.

Wall Street's plunge followed a steep decline by markets across Asia, where governments there and elsewhere have announced billions of dollars in stimulus funds, including packages revealed in Japan on Tuesday and Australia on Wednesday.

Italy's government announced Wednesday it was dedicating 25 billion euros (nearly $28 billion) to boost anti-virus efforts and soften economic blows, including delaying tax and mortgage payments by families and businesses.

Britain’s government announced a 30 billion-pound ($39 billion) economic stimulus package and the Bank of England slashed its key interest rate by half a percentage point to 0.25%. Normal life was increasingly upended.

With police barring access to St. Peter’s Square, emptying it of tens of thousands of people who usually come on Wednesdays for the weekly papal address, Pope Francis live-streamed prayers from the privacy of his Vatican library.

In France, the government's weekly Cabinet meeting was moved to a bigger room so President Emmanuel Macron and his ministers could sit at least 1 meter (more than 3 feet) apart. Athletes who usually thrive on crowds grew increasingly wary of them. Spanish soccer club Getafe said it wouldn't travel to Italy to play Inter Milan, preferring to forfeit their Europa League match rather than risk infections.

Olympic champion skier Mikaela Shiffrin said she would be limiting contact with fans and fellow competitors, tweeting that “this means no selfies, autographs, hugs, high fives, handshakes or kiss greetings.”

In the U.S., the caseload passed 1,000, and outbreaks on both sides of the country stirred alarm. Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, who are vying to take on President Donald Trump in the presidential election, abruptly canceled rallies Tuesday and left open the possibility that future campaign events could be impacted. Trump's campaign insisted it would proceed as normal, although Vice President Mike Pence conceded future rallies would be evaluated “on a day to day basis.”

In Europe, Spain's number of cases surged Wednesday past the 2,000 mark and Belgium, Bulgaria, Sweden, Albania and Ireland all announced their first virus-related deaths. “If you want to be blunt, Europe is the new China," said Robert Redfield, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Also sounding the alarm at a Congressional hearing in Washington was Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “Bottom line, it's going to get worse," he said.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that if the virus is not halted by vaccines and cures, up to 70% of the country’s 83 million people could ultimately become infected, citing estimates that epidemiologists have been putting forward for several weeks.

Germany has some 1,300 confirmed infections and Merkel’s comments fit a pattern of government officials using sobering warnings to convince people to protect themselves, most notably by washing their hands and not gathering in large numbers.

“It’s terrifying,” said Silvana Gomez, a student at Harvard University, where undergraduates were told to leave campus by Sunday. “I’m definitely very scared right now about what the next couple days, the next couple weeks look like.”

Leicester reported from Paris, Cheng reported from London. Also contributing were Colleen Barry in Soave, Italy; Nicole Winfield in Rome; Sylvie Corbet in Paris; Geir Moulson in Berlin; Pan Pylas in London; LLazar Semini in Tirana, Albania; Matt Sedensky in Bangkok; Joe McDonald and Ken Moritsugu in Beijing; Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo; Tales Azzoni in Madrid and Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea.

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Italian premier locks down entire country to stop virus

March 10, 2020

MILAN (AP) — Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte put his entire country on lockdown Monday to combat the coronavirus, banning all but the most important travel and putting the final kibosh on social gatherings after Italians failed to take previous warnings to heart amid skyrocketing infections.

Two days after imposing the same strict measures on a quarter of the country, in the hard-hit north, Conte urged all 60 million Italians to stay home. The only travel allowed will be for proven work reasons, for health conditions or other cases of necessity.

“Our habits must be changed, changed now. We all have to give up something for the good of Italy. When I speak of Italy, I speak of our dear ones, of our grandparents and of our parents,” Conte said. “We will succeed only if we all collaborate and we adapt right away to these more stringent norms.”

The nationwide restrictions take effect Tuesday until April 3 and include extending the closures of schools and universities and closing pubs, eateries and cafes at dusk. Conte took to task young people who continued to gather socially as the virus spread, saying “this night life ... we can't allow this any more.”

Italy registered 1,807 more confirmed cases as of Monday evening, for a national total of 9,172. The number of dead in Italy also increased by 97 to 463 — most of them elderly with previous ailments. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover. In mainland China, where the virus first exploded, more than 80,000 people have been diagnosed and more than 58,000 have so far recovered.”

Despite registering the largest number of cases outside of China, Italy has seen only superficial compliance with measures aimed at reducing social contact, including closing cinemas and theaters and banning fans from soccer games. The government gradually expand the so-called red zones.

Restrictions on movement initially applied to 11 towns in northern Italy with a total population of around 50,000 people before being expanded Sunday to all of Lombardy and 14 provinces in the neighboring regions of Veneto, Piedmont and Emilia Romagna.

On the first business day since the government locked down a broad swath of the north, confusion reigned over who could go where and under what circumstances Monday. Streets in Milan, Italy's financial hub and the main city in Lombardy, were unseasonably quiet. For the first time, checkpoints were set up at the city's main train station to screen travelers. People at Milan Central Station were required to sign a police form, self-certifying why they were traveling.

“Until a few days ago, the thinking was the alarm would pass in some weeks, we just need to follow the rules. Now we need to explain to citizens that the situation is very, very serious, our hospitals are at the point of collapse,” the mayor of the Lombardy city of Bergamo, Giorgio Gori, told RAI state television.

People circulating inside the city and in the provinces were subjected to spot checks to ensure they had valid reasons for being out. Violators risked up to three months jail or fines of 206 euros ($225).

Earlier Monday, civil protection authorities shut down all ski areas nationwide after one tried to tempt kids who are locked out of school to the slopes. That signaled an end to patience with the sort of wheeling-and-dealing that is often admired in Italy.

Under the extended measures, casual errands are out. The time-honored Italian tradition of an espresso at the corner cafe — gone. Customers now are required to take tables, if possible, the one furthest from the bar. The evening aperitif is also frowned upon; bars close at 6 p.m. Even going to the grocery store is a major expedition.

Sofia Celeste, a single mother of two in Milan, was hoping to avoid going out for groceries by ordering online, but deliveries for Milan are booked solid until next week. “It sounds like we should not go anywhere,” she said. “I organized a dinner with the girls’ babysitter, and was going to do some shopping, but even then I feel like it’s risky.”

Her water-delivery man — who has a heart condition — arrived Monday wearing a mask. “He said, ‘I have to work,’" Celeste recounted. Her small family in isolation is being sustained by emails from the parish priest saying they are missed and a note from the catechism teacher sending the kids messages and prayers.

The regions affected by the decree are among the most productive in Italy. Industry leaders worried about a perception being created abroad that all business was shut down and commercial deliveries of exports cannot be made.

The civil protection agency has emphasized that commercial freight is not affected by the crackdown. Sportscar maker Ferrari, in Modena province, which went on lockdown Sunday, said that production was continuing after the company “activated all of the measures necessary" to allow employees to keep working. But it noted that continued production “is subject to that of our suppliers, with whom we are in constant contact.”

Pirelli tire maker said there would be no immediate impact on its Italian production, 7.5% of the group’s total, split between one plant inside the containment area and one outside. Pirelli said that precautions were being taken to safeguard the health of workers, and it did not anticipate issues transporting goods.

For travelers and commuters, procedures at Milan's main train station were tightened significantly. Police officers in masks backed by pairs of masked armed soldiers checked tickets and documents of people arriving and departing.

Patrizia Peluso arrived at the station Monday from a five-day holiday with her two children in Lapland, Finland. They had to reroute their return flight through Rome after airlines canceled flights to Milan. They grabbed a Naples-Turin train in Rome, connecting two cities not subject to the quarantine, and were among the few passengers to get off in Milan.

Before letting them pass the gates, soldiers confirmed their residence in Milan and asked their reason for traveling. “I explained we were away on holiday, and I have to return to work. If not, I wouldn’t have come back at all,” Peluso said.

A study of epidemics in the last 25 years in France indicates that closing schools and public transport helps slow the spread of viruses and is economically efficient if a disease is significantly more lethal than the common flu, as the coronavirus appears to be, said Jerome Adda, dean for research at Bocconi University in Milan.

This epidemic, he said, will prove to be critical training not only for the medical profession but for the general population. “It is a constant struggle between humankind and viruses,” Adda said. “We have to learn how to deal with this. This is not the first time we get a viral epidemic, and it won't be the last.”

Barry reported from Soave, Italy. Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield and Frances D'Emilio in Rome also contributed to this report.

Virus-hit Italy gets more isolated as nations restrict entry

March 10, 2020

ROME (AP) — Italians faced travel restrictions inside and outside the country Tuesday as nations near and far isolated Italy with flight bans and sweeping national measures went into effect in a bid to slow the coronavirus’ silent spread across the peninsula.

Police at Rome’s main train station checked commuters’ paperwork to ensure they had legitimate reasons to leave their residential neighborhoods for work, health or other “necessary” reasons. Carabinieri teams patrolled cafes to make sure owners were keeping customers 1-meter (yard) apart.

Internationally, Italy's status as the center of Europe's coronavirus outbreak grew even after the government on Monday extended limits on movement to the whole country to slow infections. Malta and Spain announced a ban on air traffic from Italy. Malta turned away another cruise ship and British Airways canceled flights to the whole country. Austria barred travelers from crossing the border without a medical certificate. Britain, Ireland, Hong Kong and Germany strengthened travel advisories or flat-out urged their citizens to leave.

Even the Vatican erected a new barricade at the edge of St. Peter’s Square. Italy now has more coronavirus cases than anywhere but China, registering 9,172 infections with 463 deaths. And officials say they expect many, many more.

”Get out of northern Italy if you’re there. We don’t know how long the Italian authorities will keep the window open,” said Erik Broegger Rasmussen, head of counsular services for Denmark’s foreign ministry.

The governor of northern Lombardy, the region hardest hit by the coronavirus, said Tuesday he will ask the government to tighten measures further after new data showed the contagion continuing to spread. Atilio Fontana told La7 private television that the mayors of the 12 provincial capitals had agreed to seek measures to close non-essential stores and shut down local public transport.

“It’s bad. People are terrorized,” said Massimo Leonardo, whose family has run a vegetable stand in Rome's Campo dei’ Fiori market since 1980. While some customers were stocking up on blood oranges and artichokes, others called him asking for home deliveries, fearful of going outside.

“I’ve never seen anything like it," he said. Europe's airports say they expect 187 million fewer passengers this year due to the virus outbreak, which is “turning into a shock of unprecedented proportions for our industry.”

ACI Europe, which represents the sector, estimated Tuesday that the outbreak will mean a 13.5% drop in airport passengers in the first quarter alone. That translates to 1.32 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in lost revenue. Airports in Italy are most affected.

“What they are now bracing for is a total collapse in air connectivity and the prospect of losing most of their revenues,” said Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe. He urged the Italian government to provide emergency financial support.

Ordinary Italians, though, appeared to be taking Premier Giuseppe Conte’s draconian new containment measures to heart and where possible, stayed home. The streets of Rome, the Italian capital, were as quiet Tuesday morning as during the country's annual mid-August vacation shutdown.

The SWG polling firm found Tuesday that Italians have finally realized the gravity of the virus, with nearly 55% “very concerned" compared to 37% a week ago. "Let's say that I am reasonably worried,” said Juan Preto, a Spanish citizen who lives in Rome.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illnesses, including pneumonia. More than 115,800 people have been infected worldwide and over 4,000 have died.

The World Health Organization says people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while severe cases may last three to six weeks. In mainland China, where the outbreak emerged in December, almost three-fourths of its more than 80,000 patients have recovered.

In Rome, communications freelancer Brett Ashley Jackson said she woke up stunned at the surreal turn of events. She had spent the night in the the capital to catch a Tuesday flight to New York for an uncle's funeral, only to find it was abruptly canceled. She wondered how or if she could get home to her main residence in Lucca.

“This is life until April 3rd," she wrote to friends on Facebook. “Thanks for your concern and well-wishes. At least we're in a beautiful prison."

Madrid to close all schools for 2 weeks after virus spike

March 09, 2020

MADRID (AP) — Spain's health minister on Monday announced a sharp spike in coronavirus cases in and around the Spanish capital, Madrid, and said all schools in the region, including kindergartens and universities, will close for two weeks from Wednesday.

Giving the second update of the day, Salvador Illa announced 1,204 confirmed cases, with 28 deaths and 74 people in intensive care — total cases up more than 200 since lunchtime. Those cases, he said, "imply a change for the worse of the disease in Spain".

National broadcaster TVE said the measure in Madrid would affect some 1.2 million students. In addition to closing schools, the minister announced a series of recommendations, including for companies to establish reduced working hours or considering asking their employees to work from home, as well as asking citizens to reduce travel if possible.

He said that the Europa League soccer match between Roma and Sevilla will be held behind closed doors on Thursday in the southern city of Seville. Illa also said that further measures would be announced on Tuesday.

Madrid has registered more than half of the cases of the new virus in the country, with much of the contagion linked to nursing homes and health workers. Earlier on Monday, authorities in northern Spain’s Basque Country also announced the closure of educational centers around the regional capital, Vitoria, where the second-worst cluster has been identified.

The health minister said that Spain is moving from a "containment" scenario to one of "reinforced containment," with the region of Madrid and the cities of Vitoria and Labastida, in the Basque Country, considered as areas of “high rate of spread.”

Prison riots hit Italy amid virus; 6 die in overdose

March 09, 2020

ROME (AP) — Tensions in Italy's overcrowded prisons erupted Monday over new coronavirus containment measures, with riots in at least two dozen lock-ups and the deaths of six inmates who broke into an infirmary and overdosed on methadone.

Italy's national prisoner rights advocate urged wardens to take immediate measures to calm the situation and mitigate the new regulations, which include a suspension or limitation of family visits as a way to prevent transmission of the virus.

“The difficulty of accepting extreme measures is accentuated in places where people don't have any freedom," the advocate said in a statement, urging wardens to provide inmates with greater access to information and phone calls to family members.

The Italian government has issued sweeping measures to try to contain the virus, limiting travel into and out of northern regions, canceling schools nationwide, barring gatherings of people and urging Italians to keep a meter (about three feet) apart. With more than 7,300 infected, Italy has more virus cases than any country outside Asia.

Human rights advocates have warned that fears of the virus were hitting inmates particularly hard, given their awareness that their overcrowded conditions made them vulnerable, said Alessio Scandurra, coordinator of adult detention advocacy at the Antigone Association, which lobbies for prisoner rights.

“In prisons in general, there's a lot of anxiety," he said in a telephone interview. “You can't leave, and you're in a place where infectious diseases can spread critically. Obviously inmates know this very well."

When prison administrators limited or suspended family visits, the tensions exploded probably as a panic reaction to limited accurate information about the measures and the virus' spread, he said. In one of the biggest riots Sunday, prisoners in Modena set mattresses on fire. Six inmates died after they broke into the prison infirmary and overdosed on methadone, which is used to treat opioid dependence, said Donato Capece, secretary general of the penitentiary police union.

On Monday, inmates climbed onto the roof of the San Vittore prison in Milan and held up a painted sheet reading “Indulto,” Italian for pardon. In Rome, relatives of inmates protested outside the Italian capital's two main prisons after they were told only one person would be allowed in to visit each prisoner.

Anna, who declined to give her name, had brought her nephew to visit her son at the Regina Coeli lock-up and was devastated that they both couldn't go in. In the end, she stayed outside and let her nephew go in “because it's also his birthday, so it is fair that he's the one to go inside."

At Rome's other prison, Rebibbia, relatives of inmates were joined by prisoner advocates who draped a banner across a police barricade reading “Free them all." Capece accused the government of abandoning the prison system, refusing to provide sufficient measures to prevent the spread of the virus and leaving guards on their own to deal with anxious, irate prisoners.

“The administration is completely absent,” he told The Associated Press. “They have left the penitentiary police in jeopardy.” He confirmed that protests had taken place in more than two dozen prisons, including in Foggia where some prisoners had escaped. Video posted by Foggia Today online showed prisoners climbing the fence with riot police trying to keep them at bay.

The European Court of Human Rights has fined Italy over its poor, overcrowded prison conditions. Antigone's Scandurra said as of the end of February, Italy had a prison capacity of 50,931 and a prison population of 61,230. Some prisons are at 180% capacity, while nationwide the average is 120% capacity, he said.

Adding to the anxieties among prisoners is uncertainty about the progress of their cases as Italy’s overburdened court system has ground to a near halt because of virus containment measures. Even though cases where defendants were jailed were exempted from postponed hearings, prisoners probably assume they too will endure even longer delays in the justice system, Scandurra said.

AP video journalist Gianfranco Stara contributed to this report.

Italians unravel new world of strict virus-control measures

March 09, 2020

MILAN (AP) — Confusion reigned in northern Italy over who could go where and under what circumstances Monday, the first business day since the government locked down a vast area with more than one-quarter of the Italian population in a desperate attempt to contain the country's coronavirus epidemic.

Skyrocketing infections that cemented Italy as a global virus hot spot and superficial compliance with earlier restrictions covering 11 towns led the government to extend its quarantine order to encompass the entire Lombardy region and 14 provinces in the Piemonte, Veneto and Emilia Romagna regions.

Streets in Milan, Italy's financial hub and the main city in Lombardy, were unseasonably quiet. Check points were set up at the city's main train station to screen travelers. People at Milan Central Station were being required to sign a police form, self-certifying they were traveling either for ‘’proven work needs,’’ situations of necessity, health reasons or to return to their homes.

‘’Until a few days ago, the thinking was the alarm would pass in some weeks, we just need to follow the rules. Now, we need to explain to citizens that the situation is very, very serious, our hospitals are at the point of collapse,’’ the mayor of the city of Bergamo, Giorgio Gori, told RAI state television.

People circulating inside the city and also in the provinces beyond were subjected to spot checks to ensure they had valid reasons for being out. Violators risked up to three months jail or fines of 206 euros ($225)

The message from authorities was an increasingly blunt ‘’Stay at home.’’ Italy registered 1,807 more confirmed cases as of Monday evening, for a national total of 9,172. With the latest numbers, Italy again overtook South Korea as the country with the most cases outside China. The number of dead in Italy also increased by 97 to 463.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte signed a decree early Sunday attempting to lock down 16 million people in Italy's prosperous north - more than a quarter of Italy's population — for nearly a month to halt the virus' relentless march across Europe. The extraordinary measures, which also apply to the city of Venice, will be in place until April 3.

Under the new decree, casual errands are out. The time-honored Italian tradition of an espresso at the corner cafe - gone. Customers now are required to take tables, if possible, the one furthest from the bar. The evening aperitif is also frowned upon; bars close at 6 p.m. Even going to the grocery store is a major expedition.

The regions affected by the decree are among the most productive in Italy. Industry leaders worry about a perception being created abroad that all business was shut down and commercial deliveries of exports can't be made.

The civil protection agency has emphasized that commercial freight was not affected by the crackdown. But that does not address what happens to drivers who leave the containment area. In theory, they would be subject to 14-day quarantines once they return from trips outside he red zones.

For travelers and commuters, procedures at the main train station have been tightened significantly since the early Sunday morning decree. Now, pairs of police officers in masks backed by pairs of masked armed soldiers check tickets and documents of people arriving and departing.

Patrizia Peluso arrived at the station Monday afternoon from a five-day holiday with her two children in Lapland, Finland. They had to reroute their return flight through Rome after airlines canceled flights to Milan. They grabbed a Naples-Turin train in Rome, connecting two cities not subject to the quanrantine, and were among the few passengers to get off in Milan.

Before letting them pass the gates, soldiers confirmed their residence in Milan and asked their reason for traveling. ‘’I explained we were away on holiday and I have to return to work. If not, I wouldn’t have come back at all,’’ Peluso said.

The first thing she has to do when she gets home: buy groceries. ‘’We have nothing to eat at home. But I hear you have to wait in lines to get into stores,’’ she said. ‘’I hope that everything goes well.’’

Barry reported from Soave, Italy.

Virus fears bring tough new restrictions in Israel, Italy

March 09, 2020

SOAVE, Italy (AP) — The battle to halt the coronavirus brought new restrictions Monday, with Israel ordering all visitors quarantined just weeks before Passover and Easter, Italy shutting down its ski lifts and Ireland even canceling St. Patrick’s Day parades.

While many of Beijing's white-collar workers returned to their jobs as new infections subsided in China, about 16 million people under a widespread lockdown in northern Italy struggled to navigate the new rules of their mass isolation.

Global oil prices suffered their worst percentage losses since the start of the 1991 Gulf War, and U.S. stocks dropped so quickly in the first few minutes after markets opened that it triggered a 15-minute halt in trading. At the Milan Stock Exchange, investors' fears drove stocks down by 11 percent.

“Now that the virus has a foothold in so many countries, the threat of a pandemic has become very real,” said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “The great advantage we have is the decisions we all make as governments, businesses, communities, families and individuals can influence the trajectory of this epidemic.”

More than 113,000 people have tested positive for the disease and over 3,900 people with the virus have died, most of them in China. More than 62,000 people have already recovered. But Italy's struggles to halt the virus' spread are emerging as a cautionary tale.

Inmates at more than two dozen Italian prisons rioted against restrictions on family visits and other containment measures, and six died after they broke into the infirmary and overdosed on anti-psychotic medicine.

Travelers at Milan’s main train station had to sign police forms self-certifying that they are traveling for "proven work needs,’’ situations of necessity, health reasons or to return home. They also needed to provide identity documents, contact numbers and an exact reason for travel from the financial hub.

Both Milan and the popular tourist city of Venice were among the places under the lockdown. Across Italy, museums and archaeological sites were closed, weddings were canceled and restaurants were told to keep patrons a meter (more than 3 feet) apart. Officials ordered ski lifts across the country to close, even those outside the quarantine zone, after students whose classes were canceled began organizing trips to winter resorts.

Italy reported a big jump in the number of people who have tested positive for the virus, bringing the total to 9,172 cases and 463 deaths, more than any country except China. Pope Francis celebrated Mass alone at the Vatican hotel where he lives, live-streaming the event, but he did resume some meetings.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government has decided to quarantine anyone arriving from overseas for 14 days. The decision comes barely a month before Easter and Passover, typically a busy travel period.

In Ireland, officials canceled all St. Patrick's Day parades in a bid to slow the virus' spread, including the one on March 17 in Dublin that typically draws half a million to its streets. Trying to send a message of confidence in the economy, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife walked on Paris’ Champs-Elysees avenue but kept a one-meter security distance from passersby. “I’m shaking hands using my heart,” he said as he waved to people from a distance.

He called for a proportionate government response. “We cannot shut down the country but we need to protect the most fragile people," he said. China's slow re-emergence from weeks of extreme travel restrictions offered a grim sense of the longer-term effects the virus can have on a country's economy.

“Our business is one-fifth of what it was before,” said Cheng Sheng, who helps run a stand in Beijing that sells sausages and noodles. “There’s much less foot traffic. There are no people.” Infections were reported in more than half the world’s countries, and flashpoints were erupting around the globe.

“We are working for valuable time, time in which scientists can research medicines and a vaccine” and in which governments can help stock up on protective equipment, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country has reported over 1,100 cases and, as of Monday, its first two deaths.

In Iran, state television said the virus had killed another 43 people, pushing the official toll to 237, with 7,161 confirmed cases. But many fear the scope of illness is far wider there. In the United States, where more than 600 infections have been reported, the Grand Princess cruise ship docked in Oakland, California, after days idling at sea while dozens of those aboard were tested.

Fleets of buses and planes were ready to whisk the more than 2,000 passengers to military bases or their home countries for a 14-day quarantine. At least 21 people aboard have been confirmed to have the infection.

In Florida, passengers disembarked from the Regal Princess after it received clearance to dock. Two crew members eyed as possible carriers tested negative for the virus. The Caribbean Princess cruise ship, meanwhile, cut short a Fort Lauderdale-Mexico cruise because crew members had been on another ship where people were infected.

In Washington, the Capitol's attending physician's office said “several” members of Congress had contact with a person who attended a recent political conference and subsequently developed COVID-19. They “remain in good health,” the office said. Two members of Congress, Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Paul Gosar, said they are isolating themselves after determining they had contact with the person.

Countries showed a willingness to take tough steps to try to stop the virus' spread. After earlier closing its land borders, Saudi Arabia cut off air and sea travel to and from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Italy, Kuwait, Lebanon, South Korea, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. All Saudi schools and universities closed beginning Monday.

Qatar cut off travel to 15 countries and said it would shut down schools and universities beginning Tuesday. The Czech Republic banned visits to hospitals and retirement homes and began random checks on vehicles arriving at border crossings, including taking the temperatures of occupants.

Organizers of the annual Holocaust remembrance march in southern Poland postponed it this year due to coronavirus fears, and soccer authorities said at least four major matches — in France, Germany and Spain — would take place with no fans.

China reported 40 new cases of the virus, its lowest number since Jan. 20. More than three-quarters of the country’s surviving virus patients have been released from treatment. South Korea reported 165 more cases, bringing its total to 7,478.

Albania and Brunei announced their first cases of COVID-19, and the president of the Philippines declared a public health emergency.

Hinnant reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Matt Sedensky in Bangkok; Ken Moritsugu in Beijing; Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea; Maria Cheng and Carlo Piovano in London; Adam Geller in New York; Nicole Winfield in Rome; and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.

Italy quarantines northern regions to stop virus' advance

March 08, 2020

ROME (AP) — Italy announced a sweeping quarantine early Sunday, restricting the movements of about a quarter of its population in a bid to limit contagions and end the virus' advance at the epicenter of Europe's outbreak.

Shortly after midnight, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte signed a decree affecting about 16 million people in the country's prosperous north, including the Lombardy region and at least 14 provinces in neighboring regions. The extraordinary measures will be in place until April 3.

“For Lombardy and for the other northern provinces that I have listed there will be a ban for everybody to move in and out of these territories and also within the same territory," Conte said. "Exceptions will be allowed only for proven professional needs, exceptional cases and health issues.”

Around the world, more and more countries were bracing for a surge in virus cases. Western countries have been increasingly imitating China – where the virus first emerged late last year, and which has suffered the vast majority of infections — by imposing travel controls and shutting down public events.

Italy on Saturday saw its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases since the outbreak began in the north of the country on Feb. 21. In its daily update, Italy's civil protection agency said the number of people with the coronavirus rose by 1,247 in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 5,883. Another 36 people also died as a result of the virus, taking the total to 233.

There was chaos and confusion hours before Conte signed the decree, as word leaked that the government was planning the quarantine. Packed bars and restaurants emptied quickly as people rushed to the train station in Padua's Veneto region. Travelers with suitcases, wearing face masks, gloves and carrying bottles of sanitizing gel shoved their way on to trains.

Some regional politicians also were taken aback, Stefano Bonaccini, president of the Emilia Romagna region, said parts of the decree were confusing, and he asked the premier for more time to come up with “coherent” solutions. The mayor of Asti, in the Piedmont region, posted an irate video on his Facebook page slamming Rome for not keeping regional leaders in the loop.

“Nobody told me,” Maurizio Rasero screamed, adding that he had hundreds of messages on his cell phone from alarmed citizens. “It's incredible that information that is so delicate and important would come out in the newspaper first, leaking everywhere even before local authorities learn about it."

Italy wasn't the only country limiting activities. Around the world, events and festivals were called off. Travel restrictions and warnings were issued. A nose-dive in tourist traffic and possible disruptions to supply chains set off fears of a worldwide economic slowdown. Benchmarks in global markets have gyrated in recent weeks, as hopes for stimulus measures mixed with widespread pessimism on the virus news.

Saudi Arabia banned spectators at any sports competitions starting Saturday. The NBA, as well as British and Japanese sports teams are considering doing the same, as baseball and soccer seasons are starting.

The spread of the virus has also taken a psychological toll. Authorities and manufacturers have been trying to assure panicking consumers they don’t need to hoard toilet paper, which have vanished from store shelves in various nations.

Of particular concern are passenger-packed cruise ships, many of which are confronting their own virus problems. The Grand Princess cruise ship, where 21 people tested positive for the virus, was headed to the port of Oakland, California, after idling off San Francisco for several days. There is evidence the ship was the breeding ground for a deadly cluster of almost 20 cases during an earlier voyage.

“Those that will need to be quarantined will be quarantined," U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said. "Those who will require medical help will receive it.” President Donald Trump said he would have preferred not to let the passengers disembark onto American soil, but would defer to medical experts.

In Egypt, a cruise ship on the Nile with more than 150 aboard was under quarantine in the southern city of Luxor after 12 positive tests. Also Saturday, the port of Penang in Malaysia turned away the cruise ship Costa Fortuna because 64 of the 2,000 aboard are from Italy. The ship had already been rejected by Thailand, and is now heading to Singapore.

And in Malta, which reported its first case of the virus Saturday, the MSC Opera ship agreed not to enter the Mediterranean country’s port amid local worries — even though there are no infections suspected on board. The ship continued to Messina, Sicily, where passengers were allowed to disembark after officials reviewed medical records.

While the global death toll has risen past 3,400, more people have now recovered from the virus than are sickened by it. As of Saturday, nearly 90,000 cases have been reported in Asia; more than 8,000 in Europe; 6,000 in the Mideast; about 450 in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, and fewer than 50 cases reported so far in Africa.

While many scientists said the world is clearly in the grips of a pandemic — a serious global outbreak – the World Health Organization isn’t calling it that yet, saying the word might spook the world further.

The virus is still much less widespread than annual flu epidemics, which cause up to 5 million severe cases around the world and up to 650,000 deaths annually, according to the WHO. In Iran, fears over the virus and the government's waning credibility has become a major challenge to leaders already reeling from American sanctions. More than 1,000 infections were confirmed overnight, bringing the country's total to 5,823 cases, including 145 deaths.

South Korea, the hardest-hit country outside China, reported 93 new cases on Sunday morning, taking the total to 7,134, with 50 deaths overall. China on Sunday morning reported 44 new cases over the past 24 hours, the lowest level since it began publishing nationwide figures on Jan 20, and 27 new fatalities.

But while infections were increasing more slowly, the country was struck anew by tragedy: A hotel used for medical observation of people who had contact with coronavirus patients collapsed on Saturday, killing at least four people.

In the United States, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged older adults and people with severe medical conditions to "stay home as much as possible" and avoid crowds. The number of deaths linked to coronavirus in Washington state reached 16, although that figure could be higher, based on figures released by the nursing home at the center of the outbreak. The Life Care Center of Kirkland said Saturday that, since Feb. 19, 26 of its residents have died. Typically, about three to seven residents die at the facility each month.

Even islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean have not been spared, with the tiny archipelago nation of the Maldives reporting its first cases. Health authorities there locked down two of its tourist resorts after two expatriate workers tested positive for the coronavirus.

Kageyama reported from Tokyo. Associated Press writers Chris Blake in Bangkok, Maria Sanminiatelli in New York, Joe McDonald in Beijing, Angela Charlton in Paris, Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, Ashok Sharma in New Delhi, Anna Johnson in London, Jonathan Poet in Philadelphia and Gene Johnson in Seattle contributed to this report.

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Virus outbreak hits weakened Italian economy where it hurts

March 07, 2020

MILAN (AP) — The focal point of the coronavirus emergency in Europe, Italy, is also the region's weakest economy and is taking an almighty hit as foreigners stop visiting its cultural treasures or buying its prized artisanal products, from fashion to food to design.

Europe’s third-largest economy has long been among the slowest growing in the region and is the one that is tallying the largest number of virus infections outside Asia. Entire towns are quarantined in the north, the heart of Italy's manufacturing and financial industries. Airlines have cut back on flights to the country, meaning millions fewer travelers are expected - causing billions in losses for hotels, restaurants, tourist sites and many others.

The turmoil is expected to push Italy back into recession and weigh more broadly on the European economy, with trade-focused countries like Germany, France and Britain also struggling with the global disruption to supply chains and travel.

"I am getting cancellations through June,'' said Stefania Stea, who has two hotels in Venice, where the Carnival cancellation emptied the city in a single afternoon and sent occupation rates plunging to an unheard of 1%-2%

Stea, who is vice president of the Venice hoteliers association, is tallying cancellations worth 7,000-10,000 euros ($7,700-$11,000) a day for her 39 rooms — all currently empty. “The only reservations I am getting are for Christmas or New Year's Eve, with people hoping for a deal.”

Italy's economy is forecast to shrink this quarter, with Bocconi university economist Francesco Daveri predicting a 0.3%. That would match a surprise shrinkage in the last quarter of 2019 and would put the country in a technical recession.

The country has already shed 4% of GDP in back-to-back recessions in the first two decades of the century, and recovery has been stalled for the last two years. Banks are still trying to burn off a pile of bad loans left over from the financial crisis a decade ago and the government's public debt load - the highest in Europe after Greece - limits the country's ability to significantly ramp up spending to help the economy if needed.

The tourism and luxury industries were the first, but not last, to sound the alarm. Tourism officials are projecting 32 million fewer foreign visitors and a loss of 7.4 billion euros ($8.1 billion) in the second quarter alone, before the arrival of the make-or-break summer travel season. Foreign airlines are canceling flights to Milan, Italy’s financial and fashion capital, and to Venice, a top destination.

The tourism industry decries what it describes as confusing and hyperbolic media coverage of the virus outbreak, creating more concern among Italians, travelers and business partners than perhaps warranted.

"Unfortunately, we are paying the price of a media communication that has been much more lethal than the virus,’’ said Luca Patane, the president of tourism association Confturismo-Confcommercio. Even before the virus arrived in Italy, luxury fashion officials projected a 2% first-half contraction. That was based solely on weaker spending by Chinese consumers, who are the biggest luxury buyers in the world accounting for 35% of global sales.

Now the virus, which began in China, is discouraging well-heeled shopping tourists to Milan’s MonteNapoleone district and Rome’s via Condotti, while spreading to the U.S. and European neighbors, key export markets.

"It is starting to impact Japan and Korea, and most probably will impact Europe and other countries as the virus spreads. We hope it will not spread too fast,’’ said Federica Levato, partner at consultancy group Bain.

Bain is, for now, maintaining its forecast for 3%-5% year-on-year growth in global luxury goods sales through 2025. Levato noted that in the 2003 SARS epidemic, spending rebounded "as soon as the crisis passed.’’

How deeply the virus will hit the rest of the Italian economy remains to be seen. Authorities are trying to help with a 7.5 billion-euro ($8.3 billion) plan approved this week, including short-term unemployment schemes to help small businesses. The European Central Bank could trim its interest rates when it meets next week, but they are already near or below zero, and the disruption to business is unlikely to be helped much by cheaper credit.

Making things more complicated is a lack of knowledge about the virus's true risks and whether it is spread, for example, through exported goods. Industry groups and policymakers have signaled incidents of importers of Italian goods in other EU countries seeking additional certification that the goods are virus-free.

The Coldiretti agricultural lobby on Wednesday said that “unjustified documentation” had been requested from importers of aged cheese in Greece, lettuce sent to Poland and fruit to Kuwait, while shipments of Italian-grown apples are blocked at the border with Ukraine.

Coldiretti also said its producers had reported "numerous cancellations without good reasons that struck an entire range of ‘Made in Italy’ foodstuffs, from wine to cured meats.’’ The coronavirus emergency is damaging Italy’s image abroad, Coldiretti said, putting at risk a sector worth 538 billion euros ($590 billion), from farm producers to grocery shelves to restaurants.

In a bid to limit damage, agricultural association Confagricoltura met this week with government officials from countries including Britain, France, Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands. And it is not only food products that have fallen under suspicion. The head of a steel making company said a customer in Germany had requested that wooden shipping containers be sanitized.

The apparently ad-hoc requests are out of line with prevailing medical advice. The World Health Organization has emphasized that the virus is spreading person to person “and nothing indicates that other routes of transmission, such as via parcel or cargo freight, are contributing to onward spread in any way.” It added that there is no evidence to suggest food products pose a risk.

Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio this week protested against what he called indiscriminate limits on Italian exports. “It is not acceptable to block Italian goods or ask for a certificate of guarantee beyond what exists in commercial agreements,’’ Di Maio said Tuesday. ”Merchandise does not have anything to do with the virus.’’

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.